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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Tour/Interview ~ The Seven Habits of Highly Infective People by William Todd Rose

Welcome to my stop on the Seven Habits of Highly Infective People Tour. Brought to you by Innovative Online Tours. Here you can read a synopsis of the book, read a great interview with the author, William Todd Rose, and learn a little more about him from his bio. Don't forget to visit the other blogs on this tour for more information about this book and author.

SYNOPSIS:

Bosley Coughlin can travel through time. And the future does not look good.

Through a heady cocktail of drugs and the occult, Bosley slips through time and space and glimpses The End. Cities lay in ruins, and those who still cling to life hide in the rubble like frightened animals. Walking carcasses shamble through the debris exacting a horrible fate upon any living they find.

This horrific future is the only world fourteen year old Ocean has ever known. Starving and alone, she struggles for even the most basic of necessities: food, water, shelter, love…

In the present, Bosley stumbles across Clarice Hudson and soon realizes that she is much more than a simple shop girl. One by one, she displays the seven symptoms of the contagion that will bring Bosley’s world to an end and create the nightmare Ocean calls home. Clarice may hold the key to stopping the coming apocalypse and sparing Ocean from the atrocities of mankind’s imminent future… but only if Coughlin is willing to push beyond every notion he’s ever held about right and wrong.

That would probably be Neuromancer by William Gibson. I love everything about that novel and Gibson's writig style is always an inspiration. All of his books are wonderful, but there's just something about Neuromancer that grabs hold and won't let go.

What inspired you to want to become a writer?

In elementary school, we were allowed to create short books which were then placed on the library shelves and other students could check them out like regular books. That was really all it took. Once I found out that people were actually borrowing what I'd written and that they liked my stories, I was hooked. I'm not certain exactly how many of these little books I had on the shelves, but I do know it was more than anyone else in my class.

What's one piece of advice you would give aspiring authors?

Don't take rejections or bad reviews to heart. Not everyone out there will dig what you're doing and that's perfectly okay. A review is just an opinion, so take it with a grain of salt and move on.

I'm a fairly decent graphic artist and also play around with digital music under the moniker Dead Hooker Scenario. I'm also something of an armchair scientist and can isolate DNA using nothing more than common household materials.

Any other books in the works? Goals for future projects?

I'm gearing up for a collaboration with Carl Hose, author of Blood Legacy, that will blend scifi and horror into a single apocalyptic vision. This is the first time I've written anything where I'm not 100% in control and am really excited about it. One of my favorite things is talking shop with other writers and I love the brainstorming process. The working title for the project is Black Rain and will be a primeval alien apocalypse tale. Don't think rayguns and flying saucers, here... think teeth, claws, and naturally recombinant DNA.

Please tell us why we should read your book.

The Seven Habits of Highly Infective People is a novl of drugs, contagion, time travel, and the living dead but a reader shouldn't be put off by any of those tags. I've heard from readers who don't necessarily like books about time travel who said they loved it. Same thing from people who don't necessarily care for books featuring zombies. The time travel and living dead are important elements in the story to be certain, but the heart of the novel is just good old fashioned story telling.

How do reviews, good or bad, affect you?

I know that my work isn't for everyone and I'm fine with that. Bad reviews don't bother me in the least bit. However, I also feel that they can be used as learning tools. If you have 20 people all finding the same fault with the same part of the book, then that's a good indication that I could have done a better job in that particular section.

Favorite food?

That's a tough call. It usually depends on what I'm in the mood for. If I had to pin it down to one particular thing, it would probably be General Tso's chicken. I can put that stuff away.

Cat or Dog?

I love them both! We currently live with an orange cat named Max who is one of the sweetest creatures I've ever met. I love that big guy like he was my own child. But I'd also like to get a dog once we're in a place where he'd have some space to run.

What do you do to relax?

One of the most relaxing things for me is to stand in complete darkness and look at the heavens through one of my telescopes. I can really lose myself in the planets, stars, and deep space objects. Besides astronomy, I also enjoy camping and hiking with my wife.

What is one thing you absolutely need while writing?

An idea. LOL. All kidding aside, there's not really anything one thing that I need to write. I've written long hand in notebooks while drinking coffee on my lunch, scrawled paragraphs on napkins in bars, and once even captured several paragraphs on the notepad function of an old cell phone. As long as the inspiration is there, I'll find a way to get it out of my head.

Anything you would like to add?

First, I'd like to thank you for this opportunity. If you, or your readers, would like more information about my work, please feel free to visit www.williamtoddrose.com. You can get information about all of my books there as well as links to free fiction.

BIO:

Named by The Google+ Insider’s Guide as one of their top 32 authors to follow, William Todd Rose writes speculative fiction that lends itself to the dark, and often surreal, realm of the macabre. With short stories appearing in numerous magazines and anthologies, his longer works include The Seven Habits of Highly Infective People, The Dead and Dying, Cry Havoc, and more. For more information, including links to free fiction, please visit the author online at www.williamtoddrose.com

lol I had to read the title twice because I thought at first glance it was the Stephen Covey book, not this new book. :) I shared a link to this interview on my blog: http://authorjess.blogspot.com/2012/05/whats-up-wednesday-playing-blog-catch.html